iWorld
Hair-oics on screen as Traya lands a starring role in JioHotstar’s Heroes
MUMBAI: If hair could tell a hero’s tale, Traya just gave it a prime-time spotlight. The homegrown health-tech brand has made its on-screen debut in JioHotstar’s new series Heroes, a show celebrating innovators rewriting the rules of their industries spotlighting Traya’s mission to turn India’s tangled hair-loss story into a science-led, health-first movement.
For a country long sold quick fixes, sketchy serums and vanity-driven cures, Traya arrives as the rare voice urging calm, clarity and clinical grounding. One of India’s fastest-growing health-tech names, the brand has carved out a new narrative: that hair fall isn’t a cosmetic inconvenience but a health signal, one that demands empathy, rigour and personalised care.
Traya’s roots dig back to 2019, when co-founders Saloni and Altaf found themselves on the wrong side of hair-loss advice. Altaf’s chronic health issues had triggered severe hair fall, and the market offered little beyond short-lived solutions.
So the couple built a different playbook: one combining Ayurveda, Dermatology and Nutrition three sciences under one treatment philosophy.
“Traya was never started with a thought process that it will be a company,” Altaf recalls in the episode. “The concept of mixing science, allopathy and Ayurveda was started to solve my problem.”
That personal experiment soon spiralled into something bigger. Today, the brand has helped over 1.2 million users reclaim not just hair growth but confidence, dignity and a sense of agency over their health.
From consultation to results, Traya’s model is built on conversations before prescriptions. Each user is paired with a doctor and a dedicated hair coach two touchpoints that shape and adjust treatment based on progress, health patterns and emotional milestones.
“At Traya, every journey begins with care and ends with confidence,” says Saloni Anand. “This isn’t just about hair; it’s an emotional journey we take together.”
Their people-first philosophy runs deep: over 90 per cent of Traya’s workforce is directly or indirectly involved in customer health outcomes, an unusually high ratio in a space often dominated by sales, packaging and brand-building.
Traya’s appearance on Heroes frames its impact not as a business milestone but as evidence of a broader shift: healthcare that’s accessible, honest and deeply human. The episode captures a company more interested in root causes than surface fixes, more invested in long-term outcomes than overnight miracles.
That ethos, according to Altaf, is shaping Traya’s next chapter.
“We’re incredibly excited about what we’ve achieved by combining science with a solution-driven approach. Our ambition is to be the biggest health-tech company, not just in India, but globally.”
With a rapidly growing user base, a team structured around care, and a science stack that blends old wisdom with modern diagnostics, Traya is positioning itself not just as a brand but as a blueprint for the future of personalised health.
Its Heroes feature acts as a timely reminder: for millions navigating hair loss quietly, the emotional journey matters as much as the medical one.
The episode closes with a message that mirrors Traya’s own philosophy, the everyday person, armed with patience and the right care, can be the hero of their own transformation.
The episode is now streaming on JioHotstar’s Heroes.
iWorld
Snapchat parent Snap cuts 16 per cent of workforce in AI-driven restructuring
The Snapchat parent is axing around 1,000 jobs and closing 300 open roles to save $500m, as artificial intelligence makes smaller teams the new normal
CALIFORNIA: Snap is snapping. The Snapchat parent has confirmed plans to cut around 1,000 employees, roughly 16 per cent of its full-time workforce, as it bets that artificial intelligence can do what headcount once required. Shares jumped more than 10 per cent in premarket trading on the news, a brisk vote of confidence from a market that has watched the stock shed about 31 per cent this year.
The restructuring, which also closes more than 300 open roles, follows pressure from activist investor Irenic Capital Management, which holds an economic interest of about 2.5 per cent in the company and has been loudly pushing Snap to tighten its portfolio and lift performance. The firm got what it asked for, and then some.
Chief executive Evan Spiegel told employees the cuts would reduce annualised expenses by more than $500m by the second half of the year. The company expects to incur charges of between $95m and $130m related to the layoffs, mostly severance, with the bulk landing in the second quarter. Staff in Snap’s North America team were asked to work from home on the day of the announcement.
The financial backdrop is not without bright spots. Snap expects first-quarter revenue to rise around 12 per cent to approximately $1.53 billion, broadly in line with analyst estimates. Adjusted core profit for the January to March quarter is forecast at about $233m, comfortably ahead of Wall Street’s expectation of $186.8m.
The harder question surrounds Specs, Snap’s augmented reality smart glasses subsidiary, which Irenic has urged the company to spin off or shut down entirely. The unit has absorbed more than $3.5 billion in investment and burns through approximately $500m in cash annually. Snap is pressing ahead regardless, with a consumer product expected later this year, even as Meta leads the market in the segment.
Spiegel is betting that leaner teams, smarter machines and a consumer AR play can restore Snap’s credibility with investors who have run out of patience. The redundancy notices have gone out. The harder restructuring, the one that requires a hit product rather than a headcount reduction, is still very much pending.
